Reborn South Africa as a police officer

Chapter 615 Oil

Thinking of Verdun, the Somme in World War I, Roque shudders.

In fact, we can't blame the battlefield commanders for their rigid thinking and disregard for life. It is true that millions of troops are fighting on a front tens of kilometers long. .

Because of the rise of southern Africa, the technology of this era is much better than that of another time and space. Nyasaland conducted research on aircraft and armored vehicles a long time ago. It's ready.

In another time and space, in the Battle of the Somme, tanks took part in the battle for the first time, which was already September 1916, 9.

Nyasaland began to explore armored vehicles a long time ago, but it is a pity that armored vehicles failed to keep up with the Boer War and have not yet proved their value on the battlefield.

Now the Nyasaland Tractor Factory has begun to study the tank and has produced a prototype.

Because of Rock's guidance, the Nyasaland Tractor Factory immediately abandoned the over-the-shoulder track design, and the first tank it produced was a light tank.

This light tank called "Scout" is 5.5 meters long, 2.1 meters wide, 1.9 meters high, with a total weight of 7.5 tons and a frontal armor of 25mm. It is equipped with a 40mm howitzer and a 7.7mm general-purpose machine gun produced by Nyasaland Arsenal Using a 50-horsepower engine, the speed is 10-30 kilometers, the combat distance is 100 kilometers, and there are only two members.

In terms of performance, the performance of the "Scout" is similar to that of the Renault tank produced by France in 1917.

The difference is that the "Scout" pays more attention to the protection of the occupants. The armor at the driver's position and the commander's position is as thick as 40mm, which can provide the greatest degree of protection for the driver and the commander.

This point seems unnecessary now, because before tanks actually appeared on the battlefield, countries in the world did not have weapons against tanks at all, so there was no need to consider the protection of the crew.

But Roque didn't think so. Another space-time British tank appeared on the battlefield. The Germans quickly developed anti-tank rifles to counter it, so Roque had to plan ahead. Thickening some steel plates would not increase the cost much. , but would create more trouble for the Germans and would give more advantages to the Nyasaland forces.

In addition to "Scout", the Nyasaland Tractor Factory is also researching medium tanks and heavy tanks. "Cavalry" is also under development, and no samples have appeared yet. The "Heavy Cavalry" project has just been approved, and the research and development seems to be far away.

In fact, it is estimated that heavy tanks were not used in World War I, so the "heavy cavalry" project is obviously preparing for the future.

The emergence of "scouts" is destined to change the battlefield situation of the First World War. If troops from southern Africa appear on the European battlefield, it will become a nightmare for the German army.

In front of tanks, it is almost impossible for the Germans to use trenches and heavy machine guns to cause mass destruction to the attacking troops. Rock did not actively disclose the specific performance of the tanks to the British, and the testing of the tanks was mainly in Rhodesia. Nyasaland has only produced [-] tanks for testing, and it will be further improved in the future until it is finalized and mass-produced.

On the plane, Nyasaland also improved a lot.

In August last year, the Wright Brothers of the United States successfully manufactured the sixth aircraft. This aircraft finally attracted widespread attention from the outside world. In August, Wilbur Wright performed more than 100 air demonstrations in France, setting off an aviation boom in Europe; Orville Wright flew 55 laps around the Fort Meyer Parade in the United States for an hour.

Compared with the Wright brothers' aircraft, Nyasaland's aircraft is obviously more advanced in performance. In August last year, Nyasaland's aircraft completed a three-hour continuous flight with a range of more than [-] kilometers. Nyasaland's aircraft was more advanced. While the Wright brothers were still trying to find a way to install machine guns on the plane and sell them to the U.S. Army Department, the Nyasaland Aviation Research Institute had already begun to study aerial bombs.

The need for aerial bombs arose after the successful development of the firing coordinator.

When the aircraft first appeared on the battlefield, its main function was for reconnaissance and observation. If you want to attack ground targets, you can only use hand-throwing bombs, and the hit rate can be imagined.

The principle of the shooting coordinator is very simple, but it is very effective. When another space-time world war just broke out, in addition to a pilot, there must be a shooter on the plane, so that the plane can have a certain attack capability.

After the appearance of the shooting coordinator, the pilot can attack the target while stance the aircraft. The position of the shooter is canceled on the aircraft, which further reduces the weight. Naturally, more bombs or more fuel can be loaded. , to attack more distant targets.

Nyasaland's aircraft can now carry [-] kilograms of bombs, or carry an auxiliary fuel tank of the same weight to increase the combat radius. From this concept, it has far surpassed the Wright brothers who have just started.

Now in Nyasaland, people are used to a plane whizzing by from time to time. For this reason, the Nyasaland state government had to set up places such as Little Rock and Xuanji City as no-fly zones, so as to stop the uncontrollable swagger of the pilots Behavior.

In Nyasaland, there are already more than 200 test pilots, the Institute of Aeronautics has moved beyond biplanes and started research on monoplanes, if necessary, Southern Africa can always form an air force, which is far ahead of the countries of the world .

This is where Rock's confidence lies. With these advanced equipment, even if the troops from southern Africa go to Europe to participate in the war, they will not become cannon fodder consumed by the front line, but will stay in the safe rear and provide support to the front line.

Or, take part in the attack in tanks or armored vehicles, which will minimize the loss of troops.

As for the Allied Forces——

Rock doesn't care how many people they die, it's better for a dead fellow Taoist to live in poverty.

Whether it is an aircraft or a tank, it is Nyasaland's independent research and has basically nothing to do with Stoudemire. Therefore, Stoudemire's attention is still focused on profitable projects such as farms, plantations, factories, and fishery companies.

Rock's focus is not here. As there are more and more mechanical products in southern Africa, the demand for oil in southern Africa is also increasing.

What I want to emphasize here is that most of the natural resources in the world are rich in reserves in southern Africa. Only oil reserves in southern Africa are not many, and the only few oil fields are very difficult to exploit. It cannot be realized with the current technical conditions.

Now the world's demand for oil is still not obvious. The main oil producing countries are not Saudi Arabia or the United States, but the little-known Romania and the Baku oil fields of the Russian Empire.

In Romania, the current oil refineries belong to the traditional powers of Britain and France, and southern Africa cannot intervene, and the Baku oilfields of the Russian Empire are beyond reach, but there are countless oilfields for Rock to choose from besides Romania and Baku oilfields , the Arabian Peninsula under the control of the Ottoman Empire naturally became Rock's first choice.

Although the Ottoman Empire joined the Allies in the First World War, Britain has always supported the Ottoman Empire against Russia in the several Russian-Turkish wars that have erupted, so the relationship between the United Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire is not bad, and even Britain forcibly occupied it Egypt, neither sparked a war between Britain and the Ottoman Empire.

The purpose of Britain's forcible occupation of Egypt is for the Suez Canal. This route is very important to Britain, but it is dispensable to the Ottoman Empire, because the Ottoman Empire does not have the same interests as Britain in Asia.

India during this period was really very important to Britain.

With the relationship between Britain and the Ottoman Empire, Rock's plan to find oil started from the Arabian Peninsula.

The first to set foot in the Arabian Peninsula was, of course, the Rand Bank and the Umbrella Corporation.

In June last year, Rand Bank opened its first branch in Cairo. In just a few months, Rand Bank has six branches in Egypt, becoming the most powerful bank in Egypt.

More branches than the Imperial Bank in Egypt.

In fact, with the economic scale of Egypt, there is no need to establish so many banks. Except for the branch in Cairo, the branches in Egypt basically have no business. .

Otherwise, there are only six branches, and the mercenaries with a total of more than 500 people will definitely not be used up.

The reason why Rock was able to send so many people to Egypt was mainly due to Adelaide.

Before Adelaide served as the Commissioner of Southern Africa, Adelaide served as the chief executive of Egypt. Even though it was 20 years ago, Adelaide had a very good relationship with the current Egyptian governor, so Rock used Adelaide's influence in Egypt, Very smoothly, the business of the umbrella company was developed to Egypt.

Rock's ultimate goal is Kuwait.

At this time, Kuwait was just a small seaport with less than 3000 people inhabited. Because no oil had been discovered, Kuwait had not received any attention, and its presence in the Commonwealth was lower than that in southern Africa.

That's right, Kuwait is also a British colony at this time and belongs to the jurisdiction of the Egyptian governor, but the Egyptian governor obviously doesn't pay much attention to Kuwait. He probably doesn't even know where Kuwait is and how big it is.

So Sidney Milner's reply to Rock was very casual: "Ten thousand pounds is already a lot. I have been to Kuwait Port, where there is nothing but sand. Even the fish tastes like sand. I really don't understand." What are you buying Kuwait for?"

Roque would certainly not say that Kuwait's oil reserves account for one-tenth of the world's total oil reserves.

(End of this chapter)